Thoughts on 007

• 007 franchise — great point on this. There’s not much reference to it really. My initial post is just a post to introduce the concept to the MOOC. Then there’s Pinterest images which are just re-pinned. Shenshi’s marketing and legal people would have to check to ensure legal use of any images it posts or repins to Pinterest and those used in Tumblr. I used existing images on both platforms. If they have to license images that’s a relatively small fee vs advertising. The purpose of the Pinterest and Tumblr sites is to foster community, not to sell anything. Although I’m not certain of the exact legal ramifications of posting images for community-building, it is the basic raison d’être of sites like Pinterest and Tumblr. It probably falls more under “fair use” than exploitation for profit - but these are details that legal would have to research. Needless to say, curation of images is a force of nature that is not going to be stopped. For the purposes of this course I haven’t gone into depth in those areas. The media release does not mention 007 directly or even show Pinterest images of 007 and would have to ensure legal use of any celebrity images, but that is a commonplace activity. Shenshi is not aligning itself with any one particular celebrity, instead letting the general public ‘vote’ for their favorite.


• I don’t see Shenshi positioned as Zara. According to the Case Study document, Shenshi has a unique manufacturing capability that enables it to make clothes of virtually any design. Since many, if not most, clothes are made in China and other Asian countries, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine quality suits that undercut the competition. I lived for a time in Singapore and I could have a bespoke suit made same day for a fraction of the cost of a brand name. There is an enormous price markup - aka brand value - that consumers pay for wearing brand names that gives Shenshi a wide margin to play with. I am also not suggesting competing against high-end brand names. That is fruitless. What I am suggesting is instead of going head-to-head against any other retail supplier, Shenshi concentrates on building community relationships and leveraging social WOM and advocacy to do its marketing as opposed to big flashy ad campaigns.